Health & Safety Success Stories
Fall Protection Training at CCS and CLS Mexico
Knowledge of proper fall protection procedures is critical to ensuring the safety of Corning employees who may work from heights on a regular basis. Corning Health & Safety organized a hands-on fall protection class for three of the company’s facilities in Mexico to address these concerns.
Trainees included safety personnel, maintenance supervisors, and maintenance technicians. Topics covered during the training included definition of the type of work that can generate a fall from height and how to comply with applicable regulations in the U.S., Canada and México. In addition, health and safety instructors discussed the fall protection program in detail, including: risk identification, selection of appropriate equipment and anchorage systems, the application of a management policy that supports the program and continuous training. Safe work procedures for using ladders and working on scaffolds were also covered.
The practical part of the training consisted of performing several “fall exercises” on a structure constructed and reviewed by the trainer in line with safety specifications for scaffolds. The 12-meter-high structure allowed the participants to feel a fall controlled by retractable lines, to practice the rescue of a person who activated the system against falls, to practice the use of vertical hands free devices and the use of life linesystems. Obviously, every participant had to practice each exercise wearing the appropriate PPE and properly following the instructor’s procedures.
This training is the first step toward sharing experiences and developing greater synergies between three plants in México: Corning Cable Systems Reynosa, Corning Life Sciences Reynosa and Monterrey.
Wilmington Plant Celebrates Best Ever Safety Record
Even in times of cost constraints, achieving the best safety record in a facility’s 42-year history is a cause for celebration, and ice cream sundaes with all the fixings seemed like the perfect answer.
In 2008, the Corning Optical Fiber Wilmington Plant had a recordable injury frequency rate of 0.79 based on 10 recordable injuries with more than 2.5 million hours worked. In 2007, the rate was 2.28 with 27 injuries, and in 2006, it was 2.38 with 26 injuries. Why the precipitous drop? The Wilmington safety supervisor cites leadership focus as the primary reason.
Danny Henderson, the Wilmington plant manager, has an unshakeable belief that “No one should ever get hurt at work!” His passionate drive and determination for safety has inspired the workforce and made safety a focus for everyone on a day to day basis.
Danny instructed the safety department to embark on a comprehensive, three-year project plan on managing safety in the Wilmington facility. A member of the safety department developed and implemented the plan, which included an increased focus on hazard and operability studies (HazOps) and risk assessments, as well as implementation of a design review process for all new equipment changes or modifications. The team also put mandatory causal guide reviews in place for all significant incidents that resulted in injuries or near-misses.`
The second reason for the improved safety performance was the management of overtime hours. Once the plant was able to manage overtime levels to less than or equal to 10 percent, the
injury rate dropped. The majority of the production workforce operates on a 12-hour rotating schedule. These employees were simply not getting a sufficient break when they were consistently
working 30 percent, plus overtime.
The third reason for improved performance was the case management by Wilmington’s plant nurse and on site physical therapist. Their treatment and personalized care of Wilmington’s workforce enabled them to manage most injury cases in house.
The last, but certainly not least reason was the facility’s biannual inspection process, Operation SHINE (Safety and Health Inspection with No Excuses), where multiple teams across all payrolls spend an entire day proactively inspecting and reporting on safety issues in the plant. In 2007, the plant had a goal sharing measure of repairing 1000 SHINE items. This goal was not only met, but exceeded, as the facility repaired 2986 items.
Achieving this safety performance goal was certainly noteworthy, but sustaining it in the years to come will remain the challenge. Pausing momentarily to enjoy a well-deserved treat was certainly appropriate!
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Gold-plated parts
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Potassium Gold
Cyanide Salts
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0.6-oz Gold in
solution water
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Gold being added to
gold-plating bath
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Cyanide Reduction at Corning Gilbert
The Corning Gilbert facility in Phoenix, Ariz., is a manufacturer of cable TV and microwave connectors. As part of the finished product, the facility plates the connector components with various metals. Historically, Corning Gilbert has performed plating with copper, gold and a metal alloy coating.
These three plating processes rely on cyanide as the medium for keeping the metals in solution until they can be deposited as hard metal coatings on connector components. Cyanide, a chemical asphxiant, is a very toxic material, requiring stringent safety handling protocols.
Corning Gilbert has successfully reduced the amount of cyanide present at its facility by 98 percent.
Its mission was to eliminate cyanide-based materials from as many plating processes as possible. To do this the facility conducted tests to verify that product specifications could still be met using the non cyanide-based replacement materials. After passing 66 engineering related and electrical tests, acceptable alternative materials were found. These materials replaced the cyanide in the copper plating bath solution and worked as an alternative metal alloy solution as well.
The new plating baths used acids in place of cyanide. Although acids have inherent safety concerns, the protocols for managing these risks are less complex than those required for cyanide. Corning Gilbert has not found a replacement for cyanide in its gold plating process, but the form in which the cyanide exists in the gold plating bath is one that is relatively unreactive to acid and therefore is inherently safer.
Reducing the amount of cyanide used in its plating processes has made Corning Gilbert a safer work place. While the focus of its efforts was to reduce exposure potential to employees and the potential for environmental release, the reduction program also resulted in nearly $50,000 in annual savings due to chemical purchases and treatment requirements. It has also allowed the facility to eliminate a dedicated room for cyanide storage and the safety protocols that were associated with handling the larger quantities of the compound.
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